The real geographic size of countries.

NorCal 50+
Profile picture for user NorCal 50+
Posts
1457
Joined
5/31/2017
Location
Grass Valley, CA US
NorCal 50+
Edited Date/Time 12/29/2018 3:42pm
Most flat maps of the world represent certain countries as much larger than they really are. They are based on the Mercator projection, which is more than 500 years old, but is still used today.
Here are the actual sizes of the USA, Alaska and Canada, compared with South America (much smaller than what I always envisioned):

https://thetruesize.com/#/aboutModal?borders=1~!MTQ3MjM2NjY.NTkwMDU0NQ*…



Here is Greenland, which I always thought was huge, but turns out that it's relatively small:



Isn't it amazing how widespread and commonly accepted things can be, even when they are total illusions? Grinning



1
|
NorCal 50+
Profile picture for user NorCal 50+
Posts
1457
Joined
5/31/2017
Location
Grass Valley, CA US
NorCal 50+ 12/28/2018 1:11pm
12/28/2018 1:11pm
Aaand here is the size of Greenland as represented on the Mercator Projection:





Ebs
Profile picture for user Ebs
Posts
838
Joined
6/1/2014
Location
MI US
Ebs 12/28/2018 1:16pm
12/28/2018 1:16pm
Some of these short videos are pretty good. Here's the map thing explained...


1

The Shop

See All »
Foghorn
Profile picture for user Foghorn
Posts
927
Joined
1/26/2013
Location
CA
Foghorn 12/29/2018 8:35am
12/29/2018 8:35am
Projection or not, North America is substantially larger than South America.
Timo_2824
Profile picture for user Timo_2824
Posts
553
Joined
12/19/2016
Location
Wichita, KS US
Timo_2824 12/29/2018 2:42pm
12/29/2018 2:42pm
Foghorn wrote:
Projection or not, North America is substantially larger than South America.
NA: 9.54 million square miles
SA: 6.89 million square miles
Africa: 11.73 million square miles
Asia: 17.21 million square miles
Europe: 3.93 million square miles
XXVoid MainXX
Profile picture for user XXVoid MainXX
Posts
7733
Joined
5/25/2012
Location
Schenectady, NY US
XXVoid MainXX 12/29/2018 3:42pm
12/29/2018 3:42pm
Another thing most people don''t understand is how thin our atmosphere actually is, and how close to the surface of the Earth the orbit of the International Space Station actually is, and how small the highest mountain peaks are relative to the size of the earth. For example, if you shrunk the Earth down to the size of a cue ball, the surface would actually be smoother than the surface of a cue ball. On a typical schoolroom globe, the ISS orbit would only be 3/8 of an inch above the surface of the globe at scale.

Post a reply to: The real geographic size of countries.